News

THE Mid Hants Railway has appealed for help in compiling an archive of memories of times past travelling by steam train. Everyone is welcome to share their memories as the Watercress Line is looking for a broad range of stories to paint a picture of what life was like on the railways between 1940 and…

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BRITAIN’s only rack railway is preparing for its first-ever visiting locomotive. Plans are in hand for the Snowdon Mountain Railway to borrow 1891-built Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works 0-4-2T No. 2 from the Brienz Rothorn Bahn (BRB) near Interlaken in Switzerland for a month this year. No. 2 was built at the same works as…

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Three heritage railways have been honoured in this year’s National Rail Heritage Awards. Rail Minister Paul Maynard presented the 2016 National Railway Heritage Awards at a ceremony held at Merchant Taylors’ Hall in London on Wednesday, December 7. The Supporters’ Award for the best small project entered in the competition went to the New Glyn…

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THE project team behind the £5 million building of the world’s fastest-growing standard gauge new-build project is to hold a fresh series of Saturday roadshows across the country, in an endeavour to boost support. The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, builder and operator of A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado, has announced that it will be holding presentations…

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The two-year trial of DMU services planned for 2018 is by no means the first bid to link the West Somerset Railway to the national network at Taunton. A scheme which attracted plenty of attention was tried over 25 years ago. As reported in Headline News in our last issue, senior officials of Britain’s longest…

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By Geoff Courtney THE ‘no seats available’ sign went up early on the Kent & East Sussex Railway at Christmas when, for the very first time, every one of the railway’s 67 Santa Special trains was sold out in advance.   Indeed, there was no seat available by the end of November, three days before…

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THE Bluebell Railway has been awarded £1.1 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for its Accessible Steam Heritage (ASH) project. The scheme involves substantial repairs to the Sheffield Park running shed, which will be partly converted and also extended at the side to create a new exhibition hall. This public space will feature a…

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THE Midland Railway-Butterley wants to appoint a full-time engineering supervisor to bring two ‘Jinties’ back to life. Three of these LMS 3F 0-6-0s were rescued for the railway in the 1970s as being ideal for the operation of passenger trains, two coming from Barry scrapyard and one from industrial service in West Yorkshire. The two…

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